Tag Archive | "Greenville Michigan Home Learners"

By Sarah Read
Elementary students from Greenville Michigan Home Learners were taught the three S’s of money last Friday at their weekly learning cooperative.

“Share, spend and save,” explained Nancy Martin, the bank manager at United Bank of Michigan in Rockford. Martin was a featured guest speaker at the homeschool group for a Teach Kids to Save Day. A field trip to United Bank followed, where students glimpsed the workings of a bank, teller duties, how the drive-up tube and counterfeit light worked and a walk-in look at the vault and safety deposit boxes.

During the class presentation, Martin led the kids through examples they came up with for each category of share, spend and save. For share, the list included suggestions such as church, the humane society, and the Red Cross. For spend, Martin also had the students examine all the ways their parents had to spend money, on things like food, clothes, home repairs, and gasoline—with ideas of ways they can help around the house to make meeting those needs easier on the family. For save, Martin broke down the list of goals into things that take either a short time to save for, like a toy or video game, versus things that take a long time, such as college or a house.

After the discussion, the students, ranging in ages from 4-12, tossed money bean bags into a piggy bank toss and won dollar sign pencils. A drawing to give the kids “Moon Jars,” small banks divided into the three categories they had learned was also a big hit. “My kids had a blast,” said homeschool mom, Jennifer Dugan. “She did great with all the ages. They were all very entertained and learned too!”